WASHINGTON – Filipino-Americans have urged sports bodies and ethnic organizations to censure Floyd Mayweather for his “racist and homophobic rant” against Manny Pacquiao.
“This disgusting diatribe against Pacquiao is a racial slur against all Filipinos and Filipino-Americans and an embarrassment not only to the boxing community but to all Americans,” said Greg Macabenta, head of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations, in a statement on Sunday.
In a vitriolic video, Mayweather called Pacquiao a “whore,” a “little yellow chump” and a “midget” several times.
He also said that he would force Pacquiao to “make some sushi rolls and cook some rice” and “we’re going to cook him with some cats and dogs.”
Talking trash may be common between boxing rivals, but Mayweather’s racially laced profanities - dismissed by Pacquiao as “an uneducated message” - brazenly crossed the line of decency and respectability, NaFFAA said.
It called on the National Boxing Association, state athletic commissions and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to reprimand Mayweather for “insulting people of color.”
A day after unleashing his racist rant against the Filipino boxer, Mayweather apologized.
“Forgive me for saying what I said,” Mayweather said in yet another video. “I was just having fun. I didn’t really mean it, nothing in a bad way.”
NaFFAA said the apology was unacceptable and he must be made accountable for his damaging statements.
“Mayweather’s shameless and reckless conduct unfairly paints an entire racial and ethnic group with a broad brush and seriously undermines America’s core values of inclusivity and racial tolerance,” NaFFAA added.
Persona non grata
For Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, Mayweather should be declared persona non grata for his racist remarks, despite his apology.
“This racist tirade sent by Floyd Mayweather is an affront to the Filipino people and the very institution to which Honorable Manny Pacquiao belongs,” he said.
He said it is “contemptuous for any foreign national to issue irresponsible racist remarks against any of its (House of Representatives) members and to any of our countrymen.”
Castelo, who is also vice chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said he was also offended over “wild allegations” that his colleague in Congress was taking steroids in order to win his boxing fights.
“In this 15th Congress, we feel that the unwritten ethos of basic decency and elementary courtesy must afford every man the respect that he deserves as a human being first and foremost,” he said.
He said Mayweather’s apologies were late as he “failed to calculate the irreparable damage done unto the person of the one subject of his irresponsible racist tirades, Manny Pacquiao in this case, as well as the country and the institution to which he belongs.” With Paolo Romero